Mack Truck Workers Are Latest To Go On Strike

Mack Truck employees are the next group of employees represented by the United Auto Workers who have been unable to reach an agreement with their parent company, Volvo. As of 11:59 on Saturday, workers began walking out of at least 3 facilities in Pennslyvania, Maryland and Florida in the first strike in over 30 years.

The Morning Call reports, “It will be the first strike for Mack since 1984, when a nine-day strike idled 9,200 workers and kept the manufacturer’s U.S. plants closed before a tentative agreement was reached.”

The existing contract expired on October 1, however union workers were able to continue working until last week. Now though, the disagreement over wage increases, healthcare coverage, work schedules has grown and no decision can be met between the UAW and Mack.

Mack Trucks President Martin Weissburg commented, “We are surprised and disappointed that the UAW decided to strike, rather than to allow our employees to keep building trucks and engines while the parties continued to negotiate. The positive working relationship between local UAW leadership and management at our facilities was clearly in evidence throughout the negotiations, and progress was being made.”